The North Carolina National Guard reached a settlement Tuesday with a 23-year veteran whom it had banned from its official social media page after he criticized the Guard’s leadership.
The veteran, Timothy Stanhope of Cumberland County, sued his former employer in federal court last year, arguing that the Guard was violating his First Amendment rights by deleting his posts and blocking him from the Facebook page.
Under the proposed settlement — which still must be approved by a judge — the Guard agrees to rescind Stanhope’s ban, restore his deleted posts and amend its social media policy to ensure that similar censorship efforts do not occur in the future…